Sault boy turns discarded crayons into colourful venture (6 photos)

There aren’t many 7-year-olds like Calvin Trudelle, a young entrepreneur who’s turning a colourful business idea into a charitable cause.

With the help of his parents Lindsay and David Trudelle, Calvin melts down used crayons into a variety of moulded shapes for locals to purchase. The idea came to Calvin when he was getting ready to go back to school last year. 

“I was at school searching through all my stuff, and I had some broken crayons,” Calvin says. “So, I thought of this business.”

“The most labour-intensive part is actually getting the wrappers off the crayons,” Lindsay says.

After removing the wrappings, the crayons are melted down in melting pots, and then poured into a wide variety of silicon moulds to harden. Their most popular moulds include letters for names, as well as unicorns, dinosaurs, robots, and cars. 

These moulds are typically used for chocolate or soap making, but the family says they work just as well for crayon melting.

“The project started out as a fun idea for just us at first,” Lindsay says. “Then we reached out to some of our close friends and family, and eventually branched out into the community. It just kept growing.”

Letters are charged a dollar each, while the smaller moulded creations are 50 cents, and the larger ones are two dollars. Most of the sales come virtually through their Facebook page ‘Calvins Crayons,’ but the family also enjoys attending craft fairs in-person. 

“My parents were doing a craft sale in Bruce Mines, so we packaged some up and sold out really fast,” Lindsay says. “It got us thinking that maybe this is something we could do on a larger scale.”

Value Village heard about the crayon business, so they began putting aside any crayons they received to donate to Calvin each month. Students at Calvin’s school have been contributing as well. 

“They give us a lot of crayons,” Calvin says.

The Trudelles are also offering to set up collection bins in places that end up with lots of crayons like schools, daycares, and restaurants.

 “Because so many people have been donating crayons and moulds, it made us want to give back to the community,” Lindsay says.

Calvin enjoys putting together seasonal packages for various holidays, and in recent months, he’s given a portion of his Christmas proceeds to purchase toys for the Women’s Shelter. For Valentine’s Day, he donated some of his money to the cardiology department at the Sault Area Hospital. More recently, Calvin gave some of his earnings to Tiny Paws Rescue, a local animal rescue. He’s also used his money to donate gift baskets to several other important causes in the Sault.

“We pick a different charity every season,” Calvin says.

With Easter now just around the corner, Calvin and his parents have been working harder than ever to meet a high demand of orders from across town. To suggest this holiday season has been a busy one would be an understatement.

“We’ve been growing a lot,” Lindsay says. “There was a lot of interaction with our Facebook page, and Easter has been our busiest time by far. We had hundreds of letters made in advance and we were still overwhelmed. The phone just kept ringing.”

Calvin has sold 112 kids names for Easter using 616 individual letters. Additionally, he sold 213 Easter shaped crayons, 131 bunny crayons, and 29 other shapes like bugs and flowers.

“Most people don’t like brown, so making chocolate-coloured bunnies came in handy,” Calvin says.

A portion of the money Calvin raises from his Easter sales will go towards the Rosedale Park revitalization project by the Kiwanis Club. 

The family is still finishing up existing orders for Easter and can’t guarantee any new orders for the holiday. However, the Trudelles are available to make party favours for birthdays and class sets for schools, and they also offer giveaways on the Calvins Crayons Facebook page.

Calvin was ultimately left with a lot of leftover crayon wrappers. Rather than wasting them, the family came up with the idea to use the wrappings to make fire starters. 

“People even started donating old candles too,” Calvin says.

Calvin has received some amazing feedback from the community. The Bushplane Museum even offered him a spot in their retail gift shop, but Calvin’s mom says they’re currently trying to figure out the logistics of making that work.

“We don’t want to overextend ourselves,” Lindsay says. “I work full-time and Calvin’s in school and has lots of extracurriculars.”

Despite being incredibly busy, Calvin is having a lot of fun knowing his idea has created a positive impact on the community.

“My favourite part is putting the stickers on the packaging,” Calvin says. “I like getting donations and putting the orders together.” 

Calvin’s parents are beyond impressed with his passion and giving spirit and are proud of his efforts to turn a small business idea into something massively positive. 

“These are good lessons for him,” Lindsay says. “He’s learning about organization, time management, and giving back to the community.”

Calvin’s Crayons has a craft fair coming up on April 30th at the Bruce Mines Community Hall from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Calvin will also have a table set up downtown for the World’s Longest Garage Sale on June 11th. 

Since August of 2021, Calvin’s Crayons have donated approximately 250 dollars to various community and charitable programs.